Monday, January 24, 2011

Brigandage - Pretty Funny Thing EP (Gung Ho, 1986)

And so we come to Brigandage, once described as “the other half of the Positive Punk equation, the other half being Blood and Roses.” (I forget who said that – could it possibly have been that Mick Mercer chap?). Speaking of the mighty Mick, in The Gothic Rock Black Book (Mercer, Omnibus Press, 1988), he suggests the band may have originally been named Pistolian Brigandage, but I can’t find any other references to back this up.

Coming to public attention in 1983 via the now infamous and controversial NME article by Richard North (who would later join the band on bass) and the highly questionable South of Watford doco, they would go on to release “Hide and Seek” on Dave Sexgang’s The Whip compilation (Kamera Records, 1983) before a long period of silence.

The Pretty Funny Thing EP (Gung Ho, 1986) stands as the band’s only official release. That said, the NME article mentions a song called “Hope” that does not appear to have been recorded elsewhere, so clearly either demos or bootlegs were actively circulating at the time.

Opening with the obviously Velvet Underground influenced title track, we move quickly into more “Gothy” territory. Similarities with the Blood and Roses sound are clearly apparent here, yet despite this, the real musical similarities are, oddly for a UK outfit, with US deathrock bands, most obviously 45 Grave, albeit stripped of the campy horror trappings.

Sadly, like Blood and Roses, Brigandage weren’t able to capitalize on their initial publicity and by the time this EP came out in 1986, tastes were beginning to change and one can’t help but suspect that this must have sounded quite dated.

Nevertheless though, while remaining Blood and Roses poor cousins, the Pretty Funny Thing EP does have charms on its own merits, and should you find yourself singing along to “Horsey Horsey” after listening to it, you shouldn’t be surprised.

Actual tracks from the EP are rare to find on Youtube, so "Horsey Horsey" is all we have, but a live concert bootleg filmed at Jon Fat Beasts’ Time Box in 1986 in six parts has also been unearthed. Available evidence suggests it may have been one of their last.

Michelle went on to fashion design, examples of which can be seen on their website - her "wake me up before you pogo" shirt made me laugh a lot - although you probably need to be of a certain age to appreciate it.

No comments:

Post a Comment

A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….

About Me

A DJ throughout the 90s at numerous Goth night clubs in Perth including The Cell, Dominion and others he was probably far too drunk to remember, largely as a result of his preference to work for bar tabs over cash. Also helped found 6RTR fm's Goth & Industrial showcase Darkwings.
More recent projects include the currently dormant Descent - a small night dedicated to playing genuinely good Goth music both old and new in preference to packing the dance floor with songs everyone had heard 20 million times before. He currently runs a monthly show on Behind the Mirror on 6RTR fm which can be heard on Wednesdays at 11pm WST.
Rumour has it he once masterminded an ill-advised Goth fanzine "Small Pleasures" that in retrospect, he remains profoundly grateful never made it off his desk.